Training game
Snowball Effect
A quiz in which the whole room runs down a snowy slope ahead of a growing snowball. Everybody runs as their own 3D avatar and gets the same question at the same moment. A correct answer adds metres of lead, more the faster it came; a wrong or missing one lets the ball catch up, and whoever it reaches is carried along inside it. Nobody is out: two correct answers and the ball spits them back onto the slope. After the last question the ball smashes on the rocks by a mountain hut, and the podium goes by the metres earned.
What is the Snowball Effect game?
The trainer writes a set of single-choice questions with four answers (or imports them from other games and quizzes, or has AI draft them), then picks the time to answer and the temper of the ball: calm, normal or fierce. Participants join with the QR code, type a name and appear on the slope as their own avatar, the same one they have in the garden and the Study Room. Everybody starts 32 metres ahead of the ball. A turn ends once the whole room has answered or the clock has run out, so everybody sees the correct answer at the same moment.
Distance from the ball is the only health bar in the game, readable without a word of explanation. Towards the end a mistake costs more, and the more people the ball has swallowed, the more dangerous it gets for everybody else: literally the effect the game is named after. A person who gets caught is not eliminated. They spin on the side of the ball, kicking their legs, and get every question like everyone else, because answering is exactly what gets them out. The room's screen has no list of who got caught and the ranking appears only at the end, from the top, so nobody becomes the joke of the room. The trainer ends up with a list of the hardest questions and the worst moment of the chase, a ready opening for the debrief.
See how it works
A correct answer pulls you away, a mistake lets the ball catch up
Features
Key capabilities
Metres instead of points
A correct answer is worth 6 to 14 metres of lead, depending on speed, and every third one in a row adds 4 more. A mistake and silence cost the same, so guessing is never worse than keeping quiet. The distance shows on the slope, on the chase strip and on every phone, with no scoreboard to read.
A ball that grows with the room's slips
The ball gets bigger and more dangerous with everyone it catches, and towards the end a mistake costs more. So the strongest people feel the group's weak moments too, and a lead limit keeps anybody from running out of the picture. Metres beyond the limit still count towards the ranking, so speed decides the podium anyway.
Caught people play on
The ball sends nobody home. Whoever is caught spins on its side, gets every question like everyone else, and two correct answers, not necessarily in a row, spit them back onto the slope with a new lead. The exercise stays with the people who need it most, and the room gets a laugh without pointing a finger at anybody.
Three tempers of the ball
Calm for new material, normal for revision, fierce for a strong group that would otherwise be bored. It is one difficulty setting, and the numbers behind it were checked by simulating thousands of games, so there is nothing to work out. If you like, you can also set how many correct answers break a runner free.
Everybody runs as their own avatar
People recognise themselves on the slope: the avatar from the garden and the Study Room runs with the whole room, and it can be restyled in the lobby. A phone shows the ball in huge close-up, the projector the whole chase from the side. The browser draws the scene with nothing to install, and if a device cannot manage 3D the game goes on with the chase strip.
Questions from AI or from what you have
Give a topic or a document and AI writes the questions in your language. Already have a board race, a summit climb, a quiz or a quiz show? Questions travel both ways, because every question tool speaks the same format. Before anything is copied you see what will happen to each question, and the original stays untouched.
Step by step
How it works
Prepare a question set
Write single-choice questions with four answers, import them or ask AI. Pick the time to answer and the temper of the ball, set how many correct answers break a runner free (two by default), then try the set yourself alongside computer-controlled runners.
Open the chase
Start a run and show the QR code on the projector. Participants scan it, type a name and appear on the slope as their own avatar, and while they wait they can change its look. Once everybody is there you tap start and the countdown runs.
Run the chase from the projector
The console shows the slope from the side, the strip of distances, the question with its clock and the answer counter. You can freeze the game, open each next question only once you have talked the answer through, and pull somebody out of the ball when a phone lets them down.
Debrief the hard questions and the worst moment
After the finale you get the podium, the list of the questions the room missed most and the worst moment of the chase, when the ball was at its largest, with a CSV export. Asking where the ball started and what fed it opens the debrief by itself.
Use cases
What it’s good for
- Revision after a training module, where the people who need the practice most stay in the game to the last question.
- An energizer after a break: a dozen questions, a few minutes of play and the whole room cheering the runners on.
- A knowledge check with the correct answer and a hint after every turn, instead of another test.
- Onboarding new hires: products, procedures and safety rules as a chase they remember longer than a slide deck.
- Training on quality, risk or safety, where a small mistake that keeps growing is the topic of the day.
- A team workshop on how one person's slip touches everybody, with the worst moment of the chase as the way into the conversation.
White label
Your brand for participants
On the paid plans you can add your company name, logo and colors, and during every session participants will see your brand instead of Verbalu.
Training by Octigo
Want this run as a full training?
You are free to run our games and simulations on your own. But if you would like us to deliver a complete training, with a professional debrief and the concepts behind the “Snowball Effect” simulation explained in depth, get in touch. Octigo is a professional training company with 20 years of experience and many awards for its simulations.
- 20 years of experience in corporate training
- Award-winning training simulations
- A professional debrief and takeaways after the session
- A programme tailored to your goals and your team
Prefer to write to us directly? szkolenia@octigo.pl
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